Guidance From The Other Side
by AndAllThatMishigas
Summary: aka Ruth Talks to Ghosts AU


**Guidance From The Other Side**

Harry Pearce sat in his office quietly staring out of the window at the unassuming brunette hard at work across the Grid. She had caught his attention before, in an innocuous sort of way. She was bright—brilliant, actually—and full of enthusiasm. She seemed so young to him. And yet older than her years at times. There was a wisdom that Ruth Evershed possessed that had just now bordered on the uncanny.

All this mess with the November Committee and his daughter Catherine. He really hadn't wanted to discuss it with anyone, but Ruth had taken it upon herself to seek him out.

"You can't just stay on the sidelines, Harry," she had told him. "I know you think she's better off without you. She might even think she's better off without you. But that's just her pride covering her broken heart. She needs to know that you love her. And you can't just show it by protecting her from the shadows. You've got to tell her. Hearing the words is really important. She needs you to tell her that she's still your Catie-Cat, even if you've both forgotten what that was like."

Ruth had said her piece and then somewhat awkwardly excused herself to go back to work. The whole time, Harry hadn't said a single word. He didn't know what to say. Because one part of her impassioned plea to him as a father stuck out in his mind. Because as far as Harry could recall, the only people who knew that Harry had called his little girl Catie-Cat were Catherine herself and his ex-wife Jane. How did Ruth know?

But there was work to be done and this trivial mystery could not concern him for now.

Harry eventually did follow Ruth's advice and talked to Catherine when it was all over. He'd gotten a bit more emotional than he'd expected, but that was probably for the best, all things considered.

The next strange occurrence was after Danny Hunter had been killed. Ruth had been practically inconsolable when she saw his body, speaking softly and stroking his face. But Harry had been called away and he continued to watch her. A strange sort of calm came over her, and she actually smiled for a moment. She was still speaking but he couldn't make out what she was saying.

Later, when explosions around London interrupted their grieving at Danny's funeral, Harry had to convince Ruth to come with him. She had paused, thinking. But she looked as though she were listening for something. She'd heard whatever it was and nodded. The rest of the day had been chaos.

It must have been around then that Harry really started paying close attention to Ruth. She'd lost a bit of her happy enthusiasm and proven that she was made of tough stuff than he expected. Her mind fascinated him. There was just so much that she _knew_. How, he couldn't say. But there was still that uncanny way about her that made him wonder about her almost constantly. Well, that was what he told himself was the reason he thought about her and stared at her constantly. The real reason wasn't the most professional of things.

Ruth had noticed that Harry was paying more attention to her. It was exactly the thing she wished would not happen, and yet it was her sincerest desire in all the world. She knew he couldn't get closer to her and yet she was being constantly pushed in his direction by forces outside her control. They should have been under her control, but she'd learned as a child that control was not part of this at all.

"I've seen the way you look at him, Ruthie. You can't pretend you don't like him."

The elevators in Thames House were recorded on the CCTV so she couldn't explain to her companion why liking Harry Pearce was such a problem. She had told him her reasons many times over, but still, he kept showing up over her shoulder and telling her to listen to her heart. "Shut up, Dad," she grumbled under her breath.

"You know you just have to say so if you want me to go," he replied.

Ruth didn't answer him. She didn't really want him to go. That had been how it started. If it had ever happened earlier, she had never noticed or understood. But when she was eleven, her father's car had been hit by a drunk driver. It was the driver's side that got hit. Ruth sustained some bruises and a broken arm, but her father had been killed. She screamed and begged him not to leave her. And he hadn't.

Neither of them knew what had happened or why. But her father's spirit had left his body and been her companion ever since. Ruth knew he was dead and had thought she'd lost her mind in grief. But there he was, sitting beside her in the hospital room as she recovered and still, after she'd been sent off to boarding school. She could see him and hear him and carry on a full conversation, but he had a shimmering, sheer sort of presence. Her hand went right through empty space if she tried to touch him and the same if he tried to touch her.

Her father was a ghost, and she seemed to be the only one who could see him. He was probably the first ghost to approach her, but he certainly wasn't the last. Others, usually friends and relatives, would come to her. Most did not stay long. Only Dad ever came when she called. He gave her privacy most of the time, but he was never far away when she needed him.

It had been his idea for her to join MI-5. She'd been in a rut in Cheltenham at GCHQ and Dad had told her to apply for a transfer. And that was when it really began.

Death followed Harry Pearce. That was the first thing she'd been told about him. A man called Bill Crombie had sought her out. "I wanted to tell you some things about my friend Harry," Bill had told her. "He's softer than you could ever imagine, but he's got a will of iron and he'll never stop till the job's done. He's lost every friend he's ever had, and his wife and children left him because of his devotion to the job. He can be a heartless bastard when he needs to be, but he'll be the best boss you've ever had. Watch over him, Ruth. I've got a feeling he needs you."

Bill returned to her a few times after she'd started at Five. He'd helped her during the EERIE exercise, promising her that Harry hadn't died yet. When he'd revealed his trickery, she'd called him a bastard, though she meant it equally for Bill as well, who had been standing nearby for only Ruth to see. He'd apologized to her later, explaining that she had to think it was real for the training. He was, after all, a former officer himself.

Later, Bill made it up to her when Harry had been shot and Mace was threatening the Grid. Dad and Bill had both helped her sneak into the hospital and get a message to Harry. Dad, being a doctor during his life, was able to look at Harry's chart over a nurse's shoulder and had given Ruth the good prognosis.

It was also Bill who had told her she should talk to Harry about his daughter. He told her stories about his time with Harry, how he'd been so proud of his children and missed them so, how he'd called them Little G and Catie-Cat because Graham had found pronouncing his own name very difficult when he was small and Catherine had always loved animals. Ruth could hardly imagine Harry Pearce as a doting father with cute nicknames for his children the way Dad had for her. He was the only one who ever called her Ruthie, and he still used the nickname now, even though she was over thirty.

"Remind him how a daughter needs her father. You know that better than most," Dad told her.

Later, she'd practically hated herself for letting to much of what Bill had told her slip out to Harry. It was a miracle that he'd not pressed her for more information on how she knew so much. Ruth was walking on eggshells around him for weeks, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But things moved quickly on the Grid and there were more important things to be concerned about.

Danny Hunter, sweet and funny and marvelous Danny, had been the first of her friends to die. She knew it was only a matter of time, especially since Bill warned her that death followed Harry Pearce. But Danny was so young and full of life. He was younger than Ruth herself. They'd had a nice, easy friendship on the Grid, both of them growing up in their careers together. And then he was gone, and she'd had to say goodbye to his dead body.

"I'm sorry to leave you, Ruth," he said to her. "I wish I could give you a hug. You know I hate it when you cry."

Ruth had smiled at that. He always was so sweet with her. "I can't help it, Danny. I'm going to miss you. I don't know how to do this job if you're not there across the desk."

"You'll be alright," Danny promised her. "You've gotta be alright. You always take care of everyone. Adam and Fiona are gonna need you. Sam is really gonna need you. Take care of them for me. And don't let Malcolm and Colin geek out too hard."

As much as she missed Danny in the living world after that, he'd not left her immediately, which was a wonderful comfort. The next day, he'd sat next to her while she worked. They hadn't said anything. He was just there. It was very nice. And then when they were interrupted during his funeral, it had been Danny who sat beside her when Harry asked her to come with him. It was Danny who had reminded her of the work they did, that Harry really did need her, that this would be a difficult road and neither she nor Harry should walk it alone. Ruth nodded and vowed to herself to say by Harry's side.

And she had. She stayed by his side as much as he would let her. Dad was getting a bit too pushy about it, actually. He no longer interfered on the Grid unless she asked him to come. But almost every evening, Ruth would find him sitting on the sofa at her house, petting her cats—how he could do that and yet not interfere with anything else of the physical world was quite beyond her.

"You're better than this, Ruthie. You've got to be brave. You were nearly brave enough with that John Fortescue, but he wasn't the right man for you," Dad said.

"Stop it, please," she pleaded. The debacle that was John Fortescue, the handsome and wonderful man she'd gotten a crush on through the Section D surveillance, was not long enough passed for it to not upset her still. She had lost her head in pursuing him, in letting Malcolm and Sam help her arrange things in her favor. But both she and John were far too cowardly to actually do anything about it. And she was still alone with only her ghost father for company.

"Harry Pearce could be the right man."

Ruth sat down on the sofa beside him and sighed quite unhappily. "What sort of father pushes his daughter to try and have it on with her boss?"

Dad chuckled. "The kind of father who wants to see his daughter happy and also knows that she would never just 'have it on with her boss.'"

"Even if I did like him," Ruth began.

"Which you do," Dad interjected.

"Even if I did," she insisted, "What would I do about it?"

"Well, if what Bill told you about Harry is true, which I think we know it is, Harry only needs a bit of encouragement from you to make his move. He's not at all the womanizer he was when he was younger. But he's not a timid sort of man, is he? If you let him know you're interested, I'm sure he'll take the lead."

"That assumes he's interested in me," she pointed out.

Dad burst out laughing. "For such a clever girl, Ruthie, you sure are daft sometimes. That man is absolutely besotted with you. Haven't you seen the way he looks at you?"

Ruth blushed. "I'm not discussing my love life with my dead father," she grumbled.

"Have it your way. You know I've kept out of it in the past. I've not always approved of your choices, but I'm dead, as you pointed out, and it's not my place."

"So why the interest this time? You hardly leave me alone about Harry."

Dad smiled at her. "This one's different, Ruthie. Call it afterlife intuition."

He said nothing else on the subject. He couldn't, since a knock came at the door a minute later. Ruth frowned. Dad disappeared and Ruth got up to see who could possibly be bothering her at this hour.

Turned out it was Gary bloody Hicks. Being an overdramatic nuisance as always. Good lord, what had Ruth ever seen in him!? This was probably one of the disapproved of choices that Dad had mentioned. Though she was now begrudgingly pleased that he hadn't interfered. Dating Gary and thinking she'd been in love with him had been an important part of her life. At the time, Gary had given her a very good excuse to keep away from Peter and his downward spiral after Angela left him and he'd gotten fired from Royal Protection. And then Gary's utter selfishness had taught Ruth that maybe it was better to be on her own than subject herself to that sort of ill treatment.

Once she figured out what the hell Gary was going on about, she knew she had to call Harry. He'd been mourning his friend and former boss, Clive McTaggert. And here was Gary claiming that he'd seen Clive be murdered. Thank god he'd come to Ruth before going to print his story. It was a shockingly rational move on his part.

"Harry, it's me. Ruth." Why was she so nervous to call him? Well, probably because it was late at night and Gary had put her on edge.

"Ruth?"

"Yes."

"What time is it?"

Ruth wanted to melt into the floor. Christ, this was aggravating. "Late. Look, I'm sorry to be calling you at this hour, but…"

"Are you alright?"

Oh lord, why did he have to be concerned in that tone of voice? Maybe Dad was right, maybe Harry did have some sort of feeling for her… "Me? Yes, I'm fine, thanks," she told him over the phone.

"Well, that's good."

"Harry, I was just wondering if perhaps you could come over."

"Come over? Now?"

"Well, yes."

"To your place?"

"Yes." Oh no, she'd bungled this. He'd gotten the wrong idea. Or maybe the _right_ idea, but not right now! "No, I mean, there's…"

"What?"

"There's someone I need you to meet."

"Oh."

Ruth had eventually been able to explain about Gary and what he was saying about Clive, and Harry was standing in her kitchen ten minutes later. Just as she'd hoped, he knew just what to do. He was talking to Gary and figuring out what was going on.

"Harry doesn't like that man."

She turned as subtly as she could manage, recognizing what was going on whenever she heard an unfamiliar voice. Standing there was an older man in a very posh suit. This must be Clive McTaggert.

He obviously understood that Ruth couldn't speak to him in the present company without attracting too much attention. Clive continued without waiting for her response. "He's a suspicious man, our Harry. It takes something special to earn his trust. Gary Hicks is a rotten man, and Harry knows it. But you, Ruth. You know he trusts you."

How Clive knew that, she wasn't sure. Had Harry mentioned her to him during his life? That wasn't something to ponder at the moment. "He's telling the truth, Harry," Ruth interjected to the living men in her kitchen. "Trust me."

Harry looked at her for a moment, studying her face, looking for something, perhaps. What, she couldn't say. But he eventually nodded. He ordered both Gary and Ruth to a safehouse with round the clock protection.

Of course, little it did them, Gary mucking it all up and getting the whole place shot up. Ruth would have been killed if it weren't for Dad. He'd warned her that people were coming and screamed at her to get down. She couldn't very well do that without arousing too much suspicion, so she waited till Zaf made a move and then dove to the floor.

"Stay down, Ruth!" Dad yelled. She was immediately transported back to that fateful day when she was eleven and he'd yelled her name in just that tone when the car crash happened. Once again, Dad had saved her. Maybe she should listen to him more often.

When all was said and done and Ruth was finally allowed to go back home and Gary Hicks was released back into the world, Ruth was sitting back on her sofa with Dad beside her.

"I'm going to do it," she told him.

He smiled at her. "I think that's a good idea."

Without allowing herself a second thought, she dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Harry. It's Ruth."

"Ruth, what's wrong?"

She smiled slightly. He'd obviously learned from the last time she'd called. "Nothing. I was just wondering if…if you'd like to come over. There's no one here this time. Just me," she added, just in case he got the wrong idea.

Harry was sitting on his own sofa at that exact moment and felt his heart skip a beat. "Are…are you sure?"

"Oh, well, you don't have to. If you don't want to. It was just a thought," she replied with a slight panic in her voice.

"No, I…I do. I'd like that very much," he assured her. "I just…you've been through a lot in the last few days, Ruth. I don't want us to do something you'd regret."

"I don't think I'll regret this, Harry. I've been told on good authority that this is a good idea."

"Whose authority?"

She laughed lightly into the phone. "Never mind that."

There she went, being uncanny again. But perhaps now was a good time for Harry to learn what that was all about. "I'll be there in ten minutes."

"I look forward to it."

* * *

**Author's Note: This is the first in what I hope will be a series. I just have way too many ideas for Ruth talking to ghosts, especially given the body count of this show. Not sure when the next one will be up. Might not be till next Halloween. But there's lots more to explore with Harry and Ruth and her ghosts!**


End file.
